VI 



his acquired knowledge, and promptly recommending and carrying 

 out improvements of system consequent on the change of circum- 

 stances, viz., an iron fleet superseding a wooden one. The compass 

 system for the secure navigation of the Fleet under its remarkable 

 changes, has grown entirely under his own hands, and has been 

 marked by the following conditions : — 



" 1st. Entire success ; for to the present time not a single ship of 

 the Fleet has been lost or hazarded by default traceable to her com- 

 passes. 



" 2nd. The principles involved are accepted by the navies of 

 Europe and America. 



" 3rd. The scientific value of his labours has in this country been 

 recognised by his election into the fellowship of the Royal Society. 



" 4th. The labours, whether experimental, or for purposes of inves- 

 tigation, by seeking the aid of men of science outside the naval pro- 

 fession, have cost the country nothing. 



" 5th. Officers have been instructed by him, and works on the 

 whole subject written and published, so that the knowledge has been 

 diffused, and the results cannot be lost. 



" But in addition to the security of the fleet and the establishment 

 of the foundation of correct principles, he can claim the advantage 

 that has accrued to the State of having by the system pursued, 

 economised the great expenses that must have been incurred, had no 

 system based on pure science existed : I allude to the time and 

 enormous labour involved in swinging and heeling ships ; this for all 

 ordinary cases has long been dispensed with, and the swinging alone 

 is confined to times and circumstances, when it is chiefly necessary to 

 give confidence to the officers of the ship. 



" There is another point on which these sound principles operate : 

 they effectually bar the door to individuals who come with quasi 

 inventions, sometimes backed by officers of rank, well meaning but 

 necessarily ignorant of the subject, professing to relieve all the 

 troubles of compass management on board ship, and to leap over at a 

 bound the labour of years of investigation, and all past experience ! 

 The Admiralty is the special target at which these inventors aim, 

 and the Government cannot be ignorant of a recent case where a very 

 large and well supported demand on their credulity, and the public 

 purse to follow, was defeated by the wise and persistent course of 

 action adopted by Captain Evans ; these examples, more or less in 

 their attempts on the national purse and on his responsibilities, have 

 abounded during his tenure of office and mine, sometimes I fear to the 

 no small engenderment of ill will and jealousy, but I am sure not to the 

 diminution of the general respect for hig character and recognition 

 of his abilities." . . . 



Captain Evans sat for many years on the Council of the Royal 



